Nigrante tectam pallio is the beginning of an evening hymn (Jiymnus vespertinus) by Magnus Felix Ennodius (q. v.), bishop of Pavia (Ticinum), where he died July 17, 521. Besides a number of theological works, he also wrote poems, among which are some hj'mns, which were published by Schott and Sirmond (Paris, 1611), and which are also found in the Bihlioth. Patrum Lugd. This evening hymn has been translated into German by Rambach, Anthologie christl. Gesdnge, i, 94:, and by Konigsfeld in his Lateinische Hymnen v. Gesdnge, 2d series, p. 67 sq. (Bonn, 1865).
Uigrinus, Bartholojieis, a Roman Catholic di- vine, who flourished in Poland near the middle of the 17th century, was born of Socinian parents, and having been successively a Lutheran, and a minister of the Hel- vetian confession at Dantzic, finaUy obtained much in- fluence at the Polish court under king Vladislav IV, after having accepted the Romish faith. The king was anxious to bring about in his realm the religious union of all his subjects, and thus to close the fearful strife which then threatened to end in a war for conscience' sake. Nigrinus, having obtained access to the monarch, represented to him that it was an easy thing to unite all Christian confessions. The king supposed that an individual who had several times changed his religious persuasion must be well acquainted with all differences and causes of controversy, and consequently put faith in the feasibility of the project. Nigrinus further main- tained, before the king and several bishops, that it would be possible to attain his object by means of a friendly discussion between some chosen doctors of the different confessions; and the king, giving heed to Nigrinus's per- suasions, resolved to gather in a friendly meeting {collo- quium charitativum) a number of divines of all the Chris- tian confessions. Primate and pope consented, and it was finally called to convene at Thorn, Oct. 10, 1644. The date was later extended to Aug. 28, 1645 ; but when it convened it was soon made evident that a union of Protestants and Romanists was out of the question, the latter refusing to give up communion in one kind, the former to accept papal supremacy ; and after several pro- tests had been made on both sides, the inutility of contin- uing the discussions became evident, and the colloquium was closed November 21 with much less solemnity than it had been opened. Instead of producing, as had been hoped, a reconciliation of the adverse confessions, or even an approximation to it, the colloquium rather in- creased their mutual acrimony ; and each party published pamphlets charging its opponents with that ill success which was fairly attributable to none, because produced
by the verj' nature of things. After this we hear no more of Nigrinus. See the articles Poland and Thokn. (J.H.W.)
Nigroni, Giui.io, a learned Italian ecclesiastic, was born in 1553 at Genoa. At eighteen years of age he entered the Society of Jesus, taught rhetoric, philoso- phy, and theology, and became successively prefect of studies in the College of Milan, rector of the colleges of Verona, Cremona, and Genoa, and superior of the mo- nastic house of Genoa and that of Milan. He died in Milan January 17, 1625. We have of his works, Ora- tiones xxv (Milan, 1608, 4to ; Mayence, 1610, 8vo) -.Sur la Maniere de bien gouverner VEtat (Milan, IGIO, 4to, in Italian) : — Regulce communes Societatis Jesu, commenta- riis asceticis illustratce (ibid. 1613, 1616, 4to; Cologne, 1617, 4to) : — Dissertatio subcesiva de caliga veterum (Milan, 1617, 12mo ; 8d ed. Dillingen, 1621, 8vo) ; it con- tains some curious details of the boots from which the emperor Caligula took his surname, and has been reprinted several times (Amsterdam, 1667, and Leipsic, 1733, 12mo) with an analogous work, Calceus antiquus et 7jiysiicus, b}' Benoit Balduin : — Tractatus ascetici x (Milan, 1621, 8vo; Cologne, 1624, 4to); these treatises at first appeared separately : — De librorum amatoriorum lectione, junioribus maxime vitanda (Milan, 1622, and Co- logne, 1630, 12mo) : — Dissertatio de aula et aulicismi fuga (MUan, 1626, 8vo), under the anagram of Lirins Noringius : — Historica dissertatio de S. Ignatio Loyola et B. Cajetano Thiceneo, institutore ord. clericorum regul, (Cologne, 1680, and Naples, 1631, 4to): — Les Emblemes de VAcademie Parthenienne du College Romain de la So- ciete de Jesus (printed at Rome in Italian, 1694, 4to). See Sotwell, De Script, ord. Soc. Jesu.— Hoeier, Nouv. Biog. Generale, xxxviii, 77,
Nihil Prebends, a title given at Bangor to unen- dowed canonries, held by the priecentor, chancellor, and three canons, who were maintained by corrodies, pen- sions, and oblations. See Walcott, Sacred A rchceology, p. 399.
Nihilism appears in philosophical and theological literature in three distinct forms.
I. In its first form it is a certain theorj' of knowledge, of its nature and extent, and of the reality of existence. It is the doctrine that we can have no knowledge of real things or existences, that nothing can be really known, and in its extreme form it is a denial of all ex- istence itself. Nihilism is the result of continued and extreme philosophical scepticism (q. v.). As philoso- phy has ever had an intimate connection with the- ology, and has alwaj's involved scepticism in a greater or less degree, so nihilism in some form has accompanied the philosophical and theological thought of almost ev- er}' age. Among the first developments of Greek phi- losophy we find the nihilism of Gorgias, one of the Sophists, and a contemporary of Socrates. He taught (1) that nothing exists; for if anything were, its being must be either derived or eternal; but it cannot have been derived, whether from the existent or from the non-existent (according to the Eleatiis) ; nor can it be eternal, for then it must be infinite ; but the infinite is nowhere, since it can neither be in itself nor in any- thing else, and what is nowhere is not. (2) That if anything were, it could not be known ; for if knowledge of the existent were possible, then all that is thought must be, and the non-existing could not even be thought of; but such an error would be as great as if one should atfirm that a contest with chariots took place on the sea, which is absurd. (3) That if knowledge were possible, it could not be communicated, for every sign differs from the thing signified ; how can any one com- municate by words the notion of color, seeing that the ear hears not color, but sounds? In contrast with this sophistic nihilism of existence, Parmenides, in the pre- vious century, had made the reality of existence the leading tenet of his philosophy. Only being is, he taught, and of the one true existence we may attain